


submerged (in the sea, in your heart)

by codepink



Category: Monsta X (Band), Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: ?? - Freeform, M/M, Subnautica, Subnautica!AU, islander kihyun, subnautica spoilers, survivor wonho, the under the sea adventure no one wanted except me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-20 14:51:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11923218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/codepink/pseuds/codepink
Summary: Kihyun briefly thinks the streak in the sky is another meteor shower and rushes to protect his gardens. But with a fiery crash landing and a loud explosion, Kihyun realizes it's a ship. A completely new one at that and he watches pods fall from the sky and smack the water before sinking. None of this, none of them, are his responsibility. But he knows he can't just leave them to die.He's been a lone for so long, it couldn't hurt right?





	submerged (in the sea, in your heart)

**Author's Note:**

> Song suggest: Blue Ocean Floor - Justin Timberlake (what i listened to while writing)
> 
> I've been playing a lot of Subnautica lately and if you haven't seen the game, then you totally should look it up. This story will probably be confusing a little bit if you've never played, but i'll try to make it understandable for everyone. But for those who do not know:
> 
> *Subnautica is a fairly new game in which you play a character that has crash landed on an alien planet almost completely made of water. You are tasked with surviving by way of crafting, exploring and discovering the story plot. While avoiding whatever troubles lie ahead, like creatures and the elements.* 
> 
> This story might divert a little but from original story content but it'll be for the sake of the story.

Kihyun squints up at the sun and wrinkles his nose. There isn't a cloud in sight and the days have become hotter, almost unbearably so. He seeks refuge in his home and the fresh air is a godsend. The purifier hums to life as the entire shelter turns on at his presence, a voice echoing out " _Welcome Aboard Captain_ ". The lights kick on and the machines crank up. He's got a small fan in the corner of his bedroom, something he had to salvage from his ship and fix. It wasn't easy but even the short bursts of cool air it produces had totally been worth the dangerous dive attempt. He's a simple man, has to be on this island, but he still takes pleasure in the little things. 

Like reclining on his bed and pulling up all his pictures on his PDA. He's trying his hand at photography and it seems to be going okay so far. He's gotten loads of pictures of himself and his home and his quaint little gardens. There's a weird sense of familiarity and longing as he looks at pictures he had taken of wrecked pods he was able to track down. When he landed on the planet he was lucky his pod's flotation devices worked. Everyone else's seemed to have failed or maybe never worked in the first place. The rules for checking those kinds of things on a ship that small weren't exactly followed appropriately. Maybe that's how he ended up here. But he knows now the truth and no one was really at fault.

Still his eyes get a little weepy as he stumbles upon old pictures he had stored of him and some of his ship mates. Back when they were new to the field of research and eager to learn anything possible. The trip was suppose to be short and quick, just trying to collect space dust from a new planet in the system none of them were familiar with. A simple excavation trip that wouldn't even take them anywhere near the planet's surface. It was suppose to be fun.

Minhyuk looks so happy in the picture standing in his over-sized uniform looking pleased with himself. Kihyun remembers laughing the last time he saw Minhyuk but can't recall the joke. And he wishes his memory were better and that he hasn't lost it a bit being on this island. He wishes he remembered Minhyuk's face more clearly or his voice or his infectious laughter. Kihyun would kill for one of his signature bad puns that had all the cadets rolling.

Instead he remembers finding Minhyuk's assigned lifepod sunk at almost 50 ft. The hull was cracked and Kihyun knew, with dread and bile building his throat, that there's no way whoever was inside survived. He was right and he wishes he wasn't. He wishes he didn't have to pull Minhyuk from the wreckage and drag him to shore. He wishes he didn't have to pound on the other's chest until his arms gave out just to see the other take a breath. He wishes he didn't have to bury his body on an unknown world where no one but him would even know. He especially wishes he didn't have to strip Minhyuk and his entire lifepod for essential living supplies. He felt kind of dirty stripping Minhyuk but Kihyun knew he needed the extra protection of another suit. 

The memory almost becomes too painful and Kihyun pushes the PDA to the floor and curls on the bed. The windows on either side of the room allow Kihyun to see nothing but sky and sea, the occasional fish jumping out of the water. The sun is going down slowly but it's still unbelievably hot even in the shade. Kihyun knows without a doubt that he's going to die someday soon and there will be no witnesses except the stupid crabs and the fish in his small aquarium. He hopes he'll at least go naturally, peaceful even, not at the hands of a Reaper or a Warper.

The sun is getting closer to the horizon line when Kihyun spots it. He briefly thinks the streak in the sky is another meteor shower and rushes to protect his gardens, stumbling out of his home. He rushes to push the flower beds under the protection of the hard shell of the shelter. He can't risk loosing his good food supply not after how hard he worked for it. Not after literally almost dying more than once just to get to the other island in the distance to collect the fruit and vegetables. At first Kihyun was unsure but his PDA has said scans indicated they were not toxic to eat. And now he can't see himself without them.

But with a fiery crash landing and a loud explosion, Kihyun realizes it's a ship. A completely new one at that and he watches pods fall from the sky and smack the water before sinking. There's a moment where he thinks maybe he's dreaming. Maybe he's seeing his crash landing from a different perspective, of someone not involved in it. Maybe he had fallen asleep and was now watching as his friends' pods sunk and disappeared beneath waves. But the ship slowly sinking is way bigger than his was. It's longer and wider and looks like a full blown explorer ship. Meant to hold lots of people and if necessary, space debris.

Big black smoke billows from the ship as it catches fire and stops sinking. It probably happened to land on a rock or a small underwater island. None of this, none of them, are his responsibility. But he knows he can't just leave them to die. He can't let them end up like Minhyuk or even Hyunwoo. He quickly makes his way back inside and grabs his PDA off the floor next to the bed. He grabs a flashlight, his extra-capacity oxygen tank and a spare mask. He only has one, can only probably save one, and he feels guilty. He makes sure to have his cutters as well.

He sets off in his boat, one he built from scratch. It's small and barely held together but it gets him to where he needs to go. He turns the PDA towards the wreckage as he sets sail and asks the PDA to scan for life. It rapidly scans, beeping, and announces. ' _Marine lifeforms found. Unusually high concentrations of radiation. Scanning for environmental damage._ ' He lets it do that while he heads towards a lifepod that was barely peeking up over the waves. He's not equipped to go too deep to search for survivors. He just hopes more people survived. Or that the ship had at least gotten out a distress signal before erupting into a fireball.

_'Life signals found nearby. Would you like me to navigate to them?'_

Kihyun says, "No. Scan the pod closest to me." He waits on bated breath as he approaches the side of the lifepod. It's orange and white and it's number is bold and black. It's a pod type he's never seen before. Before the PDA even announces the results, Kihyun is already pulling out his laser cutter to try to get into the side of the pod. He goes for the side not submerged hoping he can keep water out of the pod, to prevent the survivors from drowning. If they haven't already.

_'Life signal found. Would you like me to re-scan?'_

Kihyun denies the suggestion and works harder at prying the panel he's cut open. Once he does his breath catches and he sputters as his stomach falls. The pod if filling with water and he can only see one survivor in the seats, ladder collapsed down around their legs. They're pinned and Kihyun pushes his way inside faster. It's cramped to say the least and there's a loose wire flopping around in the water. He's thankful the electrocity in the pod seems to not be on or else they'd both be getting shocked to death. 

He has no issue pulling the ladder parts away from the body of the slumped over survivor. He has no issue forcing the safety belt to unsnap, having to use his knife to cut the person free. He quickly pulls them out of the pod and haphazardly puts them in his little boat. It creaks and doesn't seem to like the extra weight added to it. The man, at least he thinks it's a man, is breathing so Kihyun leaves him for a moment. 

He goes back into the pod to retrieve anything he can. It kind of makes him feel guilty but he needs a lot of stuff to keep himself and his home going. He manages to find fresh water bottles, a few protein bars and flares. All standard issue pod supplies but he's grateful none the less. He manages to snag the pod's transmitter. It's broken but maybe he can do something with it. Maybe get a call out for help or use it to locate other pods if the time comes. 

For now he tries not to think about those he can not save and instead focuses on getting this man to safety. Kihyun turns him on his side in case there's water trapped in his throat. He'd hate to have worked this hard just to loose the man to drowning in his own boat. "Scan for internal injuries." Kihyun holds the PDA against the man's back and turns the boat around to make the journey home. It isn't a long journey, Kihyun can still the island clearly but it feels like it takes a lot longer. The extra weight in the boat is slowing it down as it struggles to keep going. He just has to make it to shore.

 _'Scanning...'_ Kihyun holds his breath in the wait. There's a strange crackle in the air around them and the ship explodes a little more. He knows he'll need to go check it out someday but right now it's not important. They've already made it to shallow waters by the time the PDA finishes. _'Scans indicate broken bones in the right leg and possible rib bruising. Should I scan again?"_

Kihyun ignores the PDA in favor of getting out of the boat to pull it ashore. It's heavy with the man in it now but he finally gets it onto the beach. He knows it's probably beyond repair and that he should build a new one later. Now he doesn't know how to get the man inside. He had purposely not built stairs in order to prevent anything from intruding in the middle of the night. He has to figure it out quickly cause there's a lot of blood starting to pool around the man's broken leg. Probably an external break. He cringes.

He yanks the door open and ignores the voice greeting him in favor of hauling the man up over his head. He pushes the man's head and shoulders up and through the open hatch. He struggles to get the man's lower half up without touching the damaged leg or further hurting the man. He ends up dragging himself into the hatch while still managing to keep a hold on the body in his arms. Once he's successfully inside he pulls the rest of the man in and the hatch slams shut. It echoes in the metallic structure and he flinches. He's managed to hurt his back a bit in the struggle but it's worth it, he thinks.

He drags the man to his bed and tries to ignore the blood staining the white and blue sheets, a trail of blood leading down the hallway. He props the man's head on the pillows and sets everything on his belt aside. He's torn between just cutting the pants leg off or actually taking the man's pants off. The pants are in tatters and blood stained beyond cleaning so he figures getting rid of them is what's best. He reaches into the bedside table and retrieves a first aid kit along with picking up his knife again.

He unbuckles the man's belt slowly in case he moves too fast and hurts the man. He decides to cut down the seam of the leg of the pants on the injured side to make it easier for both of them to get them off. It's a fight to say the least. He slowly peels the pants down enough to maneuver a leg out, placing it gently back on the bed. It's easy to get the other leg through and the pants the rest of the way off. He wretches at the condition of the broken leg. 

He's thankful no bone is poking through but there's a pretty nasty gash in his shin. It obvious it's broken by the way the leg sits at an abnormal angle against the bed. "Sarah," He says out loud. It's the name he had given the "in-home" PDA system. He got extremely lonely so giving the robotic voice a name made it a littler better. "How do I splint a leg?" And as the system walks him through cleaning, prepping and splinting, he keeps his eyes on the man's chest. To make sure he's still breathing.

 

Two days go by and the man hasn't woken up. He's probably got a concussion and Kihyun knows that's no good. He could be in a coma and Kihyun would be stuck taking care of him until they both inevitably pass away. It really sucks to at least not know his name. It drives him nuts and he has so many other questions that he's burning to ask. Yesterday he had used the transmitter hooked up to the PDA system to scan for other life-pods in the immediate area. The results did not come back good as all scans indicated no signs of life outside of the marine life. He knew he should have at least gone and looked but he doesn't have the time nor the means to do that. His boat is still broken and his exo-suit is not up and running yet.

He idly checks on his gardens and walks the perimeter to make sure there's no predators trying to come near his shelter. He wastes time sitting in the observatory, surrounded by glass, staring at what's left of the ship. It's surprisingly still on fire and Kihyun wonders if it has something to with the radiation spike in the area. Hopefully it wasn't going to start slowly killing the fish or else he'd have to look elsewhere for meat. And that's no fun. 

It's the night of the second day when he's startled awake by the sounds of loud cussing. He immediately gets up to follow the sound and is surprised to see the man sitting up on the bed. His body is slumped against the wall and Kihyun coughs to announce himself, not wanting to startle the other too badly. The man screeches and quickly whips his head up to look at Kihyun standing in the doorway. The sudden movement seems to have been bad because the man finches and holds his head in his hand.

"You-You need to be careful." His voice is quiet, small in the big room. He hasn't talked to another person in what has been probably a year or two. Time is slow here and there's no way to really tell how long it's been since the crash or since finding Minhyuk or since lucking out and finding an island. Kihyun slowly moves towards the bed and the man puts his hands out to stop him advancing. Kihyun does, hesitantly, cause he doesn't want to scare him. For all he knows this man could be dangerous and he could be in danger and all this maybe was for nothing.

"Who are you?" The man asks, voice dripping with exhaustion. Kihyun had tried to mush enough fruit and get it down the man's throat but he suspects the other must be starving too. "What happened? Where are we?" The other looks down to his bare legs, Kihyun never put clothes back on him, and looks faint. "What happened to my leg?!" The man's voice grows a little in distress and Kihyun doesn't know what to say. What to tell the man so he tries to explain the best he can anyways.

"You're ship- It crashed. You were hurt and I-" Kihyun doesn't know how much to actually tell the man right now. He doesn't want to lie about anything but he deserves to know. "You're pod was compromised so I brought you here."

"And where's here?"

"My home on the North Island."

"Where am I? What planet?"

Kihyun was at a loss again. Even he didn't know the planet's actual name or classification. He only knew what they had told them when they set off to research it a bit. He shrugs as he says, "Planet 8B but I could be wrong." 

"My ship, you said it crashed?" The man looks around him and his eyes must catch the sight of the ship through the big windows. He looks somewhere between angry and confused, probably both. Kihyun knows that feeling very well because he was in the same situation. "My pod-The others-" The man looks at Kihyun again and Kihyun's heart stops in his chest. 

"I-I scanned but there wasn't any signs..."

He lets it hang in the air. He stays silent while the man seems to process the new information and Kihyun doesn't know what to do with his hands. Especially, as tears form in the man's eyes before falling. An ugly sob rips from his throat. And if Kihyun hadn't mentally prepared to break this news to the other than he would have cried too. Not to say his eyes didn't get a little misty but he kept it together. He had to.

"I-I'm sorry." 

Kihyun slowly approaches the man again and this time the man doesn't stop him. He just holds his face in his hands as he sobs. Kihyun sits next to him on the bed and fiddles with his fingers. He doesn't know what else to say or do to comfort the man. He can't let the man go into cardiac arrest or something due to the hyperventilating. Turns out he doesn't have to decide what to do next because there are arms encircling him and a warm face pressed into his neck. Another sob comes from the other and Kihyun moves his arms to loosely hold the man. He understands the grief and the heartbroken realization of probably being the only survivor.

"My name's Kihyun." He offers and keeps his voice quiet and hushed. The last thing he needs to do is scare the man by speaking too loud and he doesn't know if he even can talk much louder than he is. His vocal chords haven't had to be used for much other than telling the PDA systems what to do or talking to himself when he gets really lonely. 

"Ho-Hoseok. My name is Shin Hoseok." 

"It's nice to meet you-" He's interrupted by a growl and he realizes it's Hoseok's stomach. He lightly chuckles to himself and asks, "Are you hungry?"

"I guess I am."

Hoseok is still crying by the time Kihyun returns from outside with food. ' _Welcome Aboard Captain'_ greets him and he smiles a little. In one hand he has a few sea-potatoes he has roasted on a small piece of plastic he uses as a plate. And in the other he has strips of cooked Tigereye Fish. They don't taste the best but it's all Kihyun had right now so it'd have to do. Kihyun had already eaten so mostly this was all for Hoseok. He hasn't eaten in days and Kihyun can't have him dying of starvation. He sits the food on the bed gently and hands Hoseok a water bottle. It's one from Hoseok's pod because Kihyun doesn't want to bother with filtering more tonight at least. He had kept the bottles attached to a string in the water to chill them a bit because it's unpleasant to drink hot water. 

"Thank you." Hoseok sat up and swung his good leg over the side of the bed to make room for Kihyun to sit. There was a desk in the room but it's too far away to eat on considering Hoseok can't walk to it. Kihyun grabs one of the potatoes and starts to peel the outer layer off slowly. The food on this planet is strange in that everything has a protective shell on it. Like they were engineered to withstand anything. It's fascinating.

"You have to peel them first. The skin looks good but tastes awful." The same goes for the latern fruit and the sea life as well. Hoseok slowly follows his lead, looking down solemnly at the plate of food. "The fish is only seasoned with salt so it's rather bland. Sorry." It's not like he happened to find herbs and spices on this planet but if he had everything would be so much more enjoyable. He use to love eating and cooking. Now he kind of just goes through the motions but at least there's no shortage of food supply.

"I-it's okay. Hey Kihyun?"

"Yeah?"

"How long have I been here?"

Kihyun follows Hoseok's gaze out the window to where the sun is dipping low in the sky and Hoseok's ship is still burning. He shrugs and makes a good guess, "About three days. Time's different here so I'm not too sure. Ship's been burning the whole time."

"The nuclear cores must have been damaged." 

So Kihyun's suspicions were right then. The increase in radiation was because of the ship and he only hopes it doesn't kill off too much of the wildlife. Except the leviathans, those Kihyun wishes would be killed off. He knew only the high class ships, the true exploring ships, had nuclear cores in them. Everything else ran on gasoline or minerals found in the vastness of space. His ship had run on gasoline that dissipated in the water over time after the accident.

They're quiet while Hoseok finishes eating and Kihyun gets up to go check on the power supply in the next room. "Sarah," He says loudly and the PDA system kicks on. "What's the power levels at in the solar panels?" Kihyun bends down to open the door to the Bioreactor, checking that there's still enough sea-moss to continue pumping out enough power. ' _Solar panel energy conversion is at 62%'._ And that is exactly what Kihyun wants to hear. There's enough stored energy in the panels to power the base, and a few essential modules for days. He primarily uses the Bioreactor to power the filtration system and the battery charger.

He explains this all to Hoseok when the other asks. Kihyun removes the empty plates and the now empty water bottle and puts them on the desk. He searches through the first aid kit he had sat there as well and finds what he's looking for. "I got some of these down your throat last night but you're probably gonna need more." Kihyun hands Hoseok a few pain pills and the bottle he had been drinking from. Hoseok frowns at having to share the bottle with a stranger until Kihyun explains that they have to conserve water. "I'm taking care of two of us now. I have to ration things better." Not to mention he'd have to go hunting a lot more often now.

They sit again in comfortable silence for a while. Listening to the waves softly crashing to the shore and distant echo of the Reefbacks that have been hanging around the island for awhile now. The whale creatures sound so sad with their low moaning. He remembers being terrified of that sound when he first landed here. He thought for sure it meant danger. But he soon found out Reefbacks are herbivores and completely harmless. The ones around the island seem to keep the more bone chilling monsters away. Kihyun is forever grateful.

"Kihyun?"

"Hmm?"

"How long have you been here?"

And Kihyun had prepared for this question. He had done the calculations again an again in his head to make sure he got a close estimate. He dreads having to think about how long it has truly been but Hoseok looks expectant as he downs the last of the water. Kihyun frowns as he answers. "I think 2 years but there's no way to tell." Hoseok looks genuinely shocked if not a little worried.

"How long has it been since you've been alone? When was the last time you were with someone?"

The question hurts because the answer is Minhyuk. Minhyuk was the last person he ever remembers talking to before the ship went down. Minhyuk is the last person he ever saw and that was while he was burying his friend. It makes the faint pain in his chest come back and he gulps around the lump forming in his throat. Memories come flooding back of Minhyuk's smile as Hyunwoo told a bad joke or as Kihyun reached out and tickled him. Minhyuk was always happy and smiling and made Kihyun feel good, like he finally belonged somewhere. But the other Minhyuk he remembers, the dead one, was nothing like his former self. He was cold and silent and made Kihyun feel things he never wants to feel again.

Kihyun gets up off the bed and sniffles, trying to hold back his tears. It's all too painful still and very real. "I-I don't-" He stutters and decides he needs fresh, outside air. It's too crowded and too humid in the bedroom. He backs towards the door and Hoseok looks sorrowful, moving like he's going to get up and come over. "No. Stay in bed, I'll b-be back later." Kihyun keeps it together before leaving the room and quickly getting outside. He faintly hears Hoseok apologizing for asking as the door slams behind him. 

 

"Hey, I'm sorry about the other day." Hoseok says as they're sitting on the sand watching The Aurora, Hoseok's ship, burn still. It's a wonder the fire is still raging at all considering it had down poured last night. Since their conversation Kihyun had been quiet and Hoseok didn't seem to be offended at all. 

"I'm sorry too." Kihyun sighs and kicks the sand away from his feet watching the waves come and wash the sand away anyways. "It's just-I lost someone important to me and I-I don't know how to deal with it." Kihyun looks up to the sky and admires the hues of pink and orange that comes after a rainfall. The clouds look grey and he hopes it rains again. It's relaxing and they get to shower in clean water. "I-I know, you lost people too. B-but I'm glad I found you. I was so alone."

Hoseok hums and lays back to look at the sky as well. Kihyun leans back too and crosses his arms behind his head. There's the sound of skittering coming from the caves but he ignores it. By now the Cave Crawler crabs have stopped trying to attack him at every chance. They're more of a nuisance now since they're inedible and almost impossible to catch and kill. Kihyun imagines they'd taste awful anyways. He's come to classify what sea life is tasty and which is absolutely repulsive, he's happy with this knowledge.

"My brother was on that ship." Hoseok suddenly says and it takes Kihyun by surprise. They haven't really talked much about the actual accident or anything personal but Kihyun is glad Hoseok is opening up. It means he trusts Kihyun and that's all Kihyun needs in his life right now. Someone he can trust his life with and he thinks he can trust Hoseok like that. Hoseok seems to trust him the same. 

"I'm sorry." Kihyun whispers and he hears Hoseok start to cry. He doesn't point it out though and put Hoseok on the spot like that. He knows how hard this all must be for the older to take in.

"I-it's not like we were close. B-but he was the whole reason I'm here. He wanted me to join him on an adventure," Hoseok hiccups and moves an arm to cover his face. Maybe to salvage his dignity because he's been crying a lot lately. "Some adventure. I-I don't even know what happened. Why did we crash?"

Kihyun knows the answer. He had seen the cause first hand when a ship, The Sunbeam, had said they had located his crash site and were coming for survivors. Kihyun had been so elated, so happy and eager to get off this planet that he momentarily forgot the circumstances surrounding him being here in the first place. He had watched as the ship was shot from the sky by a green burst of light coming from the mysterious tower on the South Island. Kihyun had been trying to figure out how to get into it, use it as a temporarily shelter, but hadn't figured it out yet. When it shot the rescue ship out of the sky Kihyun had gotten off that island as fast as possible.

"On the other island there's a gun. A big one, and I guess it's set to shoot anything that comes into orbit or the atmosphere." It sounds weird even to him so he knows Hoseok is gonna be beyond confused.

"A gun?"

"Yes, a gun. It's part of a big, green building I was trying to get into. But it kept saying I needed 'an artifact', whatever that is."

"Whose gun is it?" Hoseok moves his arm and looks over to Kihyun. Kihyun turns to look at him too and isn't surprised to see tears still flowing down Hoseok's cheeks and into his blue-black hair. 

"I think whoever called this planet home. Must have been really paranoid about something to just go shooting ships from the sky."

"Do you think they're still here? The people before us I mean."

"No. I don't think so, scans indicate there hasn't been life in that building in a very long time."

The conversation dies out and it's awkward again. He's laying next to a man that until a week ago was a total stranger, someone he was maybe scared of. But Hoseok is wonderful to have around. He helps Kihyun keep the corridors clean and helps with cooking when he can. His leg is healing really quickly and Kihyun is proud he did a good job fixing it. Hoseok hobbles around on one leg with a crutch Kihyun made from a limb off a tree on the other side of the island.

When Kihyun speaks again the moons are high in the sky and the stars twinkle behind the clouds. "There were survivors from other crashes before I got here." Kihyun remembers stumbling across the mountain side bases and for a fleeting moment, thinking he had found civilization. But it was obvious no one had been around for years. "There's bases all over the place but I've cleared them all out by now." He remembers listening to the voice logs of whoever had been living there and crying at the sadness of it all. The mournful way they talked about dying and the world around them ending. It was devastating and he hadn't even known those people.

"Maybe you could show me sometime?"

"Sure."

But Kihyun has no plans on ever visiting what is essentially someone's tomb. It isn't worth the effort, supplies and risk to get to them anyways. None the less with two people now instead of just him.


End file.
